


An Awkward Lunch

by Toixx_nimpark



Category: Original Work
Genre: Creepy, I wrote this in January and just barely edited the grammar mistakes, With A Twist, but still kind of charming to me?, it's pretty dumb now that I've reread it, kind of horror? but really tame?, probably because I wrote it but whatever lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 06:42:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16444787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toixx_nimpark/pseuds/Toixx_nimpark
Summary: This was made from a prompt, but I don't remember what it was exactly. Maybe "you're having an awkward outing, and describe it?" Something like that?"Two years after school, Todd wrote to me on Facebook. Wanna meet up? He wrote. After a few hours of thought and managing my schedule, I said yes.Now here we were. At a small cafe with sandwiches in front of us and coffees in our hands. Neither of us has said a word."





	An Awkward Lunch

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this at the beginning of the year! This is pretty juvenile-sounding after rereading it, but it kind of holds a special place in my heart, so I wanted to share it. Comments are 100% appreciated and welcomed!

I’ve known Todd all my life. Ever since diapers, we’ve been closer than siblings. 

 

It all started with our moms. High school besties, married a set of twins and moved in right next to each other. Every middle school girl’s BFF goals. But for us, it was a reality. 

 

There was a point in my life where we were distant because of different interests. He got involved with a dark crowd. They all had piercings and dark hair, wore black clothes, and always checked out books on Satanism in the school library. Don’t ask me why there were those types of books there, because I sincerely don’t know. 

 

In our last year of school, he came up to me and said he wanted to be closer to me. I had missed Todd all throughout our last few years of school, so I accepted. However, we went to different colleges. It was difficult to stay in touch, but we managed. 

 

Two years after school, he wrote to me on Facebook.  _ Wanna meet up?  _ He wrote. After a few hours of thought and managing my schedule, I said yes. 

 

Now here we were. At a small cafe with sandwiches in front of us and coffees in our hands. Neither of us has said a word. 

 

He looks different from high school. Back then he had earrings and black hair that was cut choppily. Todd used to fit in well with the group he used to hang out with. Nowadays he still kind of looked scary. His piercings were still there, and he had tattoos now on his arms and collarbones. They were drawings of bones and made his skinny stature look creepy. 

 

His hair is long, going past his shoulders. The dye had washed out a lot, making his hair dark brown. Still darker than his natural hair color, but closer to it. 

 

Todd clears his throat. “So what’s new?” 

 

How do I speak again? It seems like I completely forgot how to talk to him. What kind of things was he interested in? Did he have a girlfriend yet? 

 

“Nothing much,” I finally say. “I just aced my engineering quiz.” 

 

He laughed. “You haven’t changed at all! Still just as obsessed with your studies as you were in middle school.” 

 

“I’m not obsessed…” I feel my cheeks darken. “What have you been up to?” 

 

“Turns out making art doesn’t pay as well as I’d like,” He replied. “It’s okay, though. I got a job at the theatre near my college.” 

 

The movie theatre was a nice place. On both of our campuses, there were rivaling movie theatres. We do not know when they started rivaling and if I’m being honest, I don’t think even they remember what caused their rivalry. 

 

“That’s nice,” I say. I’m not sure if I mean it. It sounds like he’s more genuine than I am. 

 

I’m not usually like this, though. Usually, I know how to get a conversation rolling, but I remain speechless when it comes to this situation. 

 

Finally, he picks up his egg salad sandwich and takes a big bite. He eats the same as he did when he was young. When it came to sandwiches, he was always able to just take a bite right out of the crust, something that I’ve never been able to do. 

 

He chews. Then he makes a face. It’s not a face I’m used to seeing from Todd, even though I’ve known him for so long. He once made it when a few bullies from school made him eat a handful of earthworms. But he’s never made that face towards something as mundane as a sandwich. A sinking feeling blooms in my gut, but like most sinking feelings, I ignore it. 

 

I take this as my cue to eat. So I pick up my own sandwich (white bread with turkey, American cheese, and lettuce) and begin to eat. It tastes fine to me. 

 

Todd is still making faces with every bite, and I feel the eyes of the staff on us. It’s embarrassing. 

 

“Is your sandwich okay?” I ask, mainly to get him to stop eating and stop making faces. 

 

“I’m sure it does taste good,” he replied. “But for almost a decade I’ve lived a certain lifestyle and it’s affected my opinion on normal food.” 

 

The sinking feeling pulses. I continue to ignore it. 

 

“I did something like that a few years ago,” I say. I think I was trying to be relatable. Maybe make everything a bit smoother. “My friend convinced me to go vegan for a while. It was fun, but not really my thing.” 

 

Todd looks at me for a moment. It’s not with the same face he gave the sandwich, though, so I smile. He doesn’t smile back. 

 

“My lifestyle choice was a little different if I’m being frank. For the last four months, I’ve stopped it.” 

 

Oh. Good for him, I thought. That is, if the lifestyle choice was a bad one, like drugs or alcohol. The moment is empty with more silence as we continue to eat. 

 

Well, it’s silent in terms that we are not talking. But everyone else around us, the staff and patrons, are all in a conversation. So it’s actually quite loud. Todd and I don’t notice, too busy thinking of what else to say. What else was there to say? 

 

And what was his lifestyle choice? I know it’s stupid but the sinking feeling in my gut is asking me nicely to please ask him what he means exactly by that. My throat was yelling at my gut feeling to shut up. But this is all being said as if my internal organs could actually speak or think for themselves. So I guess in a way, the only internal organ who had this conflict was my brain. 

 

Eventually, I spoke. 

 

“What was your lifestyle choice?” 

 

Todd went rigid, eyes widening. And it was just as he finished his bite of egg salad sandwich, so he had no food to hide behind. It would be rude of him to take another bite even after I asked him a question. 

 

“What do you mean?” He asked as if there was any other meaning to what I said. 

 

For some reason that made my eyes water. My hands trembled underneath the table. “What was the lifestyle choice you said you were leaving?” I ask again. 

 

He sighed and put his food down. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. All of his body languages pointed to someone who had a million things to hide. Maybe he did. I wouldn’t know about it until he told me. That’s how secrets work. 

 

“It started freshman year of high school,” he began. 

 

“When you made those new friends?”

 

“Yeah,” his expression darkened. “They had all sorts of ideas. And one of them involved an extremely obscure food craze.”

 

Those tapeworm diet meals? Bugs? What food craze could it be? 

 

“What was it?” I asked. 

 

Todd took a deep breath. “I was… I was a cannibal once.” 

 

Oh. The sinking feeling in my gut crept up through my intestines and through my mouth in the form of a scream that could be heard through the entire cafe. 


End file.
